As the old saying goes… A Fool and their money are soon parted. I have been thinking about this adage as I contemplate the status of our advertising. The blog has helped all of us embrace the internet and has already lead to some good business leads as well as some staggering search engine results.
I probably get 10-15 calls or emails a week from various advertisers wanting us to make a commitment to place ads with their publication. They all sound tempting, especially those from the upscale magazines… and in a different time I might have been tempted. But then I stop and think – hey we aren’t filling the commitments that we already have, so I am just going to say “thanks but no thanks“.
Such was the case with the Robb Report. The rep there has been particularly persistent and I love the Robb Report but at $625 an ad for a 12 property page – I just couldn’t see that happening. We have tried the Robb Report before and have no success stories to report so I politely declined. The rep followed up with me and said she had calls from our agents expressing interest to fill a page and how did I feel about that? I told her if she had that commitment,would produce the ad and bill the agents that was okay by me.
Today I got a copy of an email she sent to some of our agents saying….
” Good Morning,
This past week I have spoken to several of you and apologize if I haven’t spoken to you yet. I have spoken to Beth Butler several times and she is just too busy to get this going and therefore has asked me to contact her top agents to participate. Robb Report Collection is dropped along with the Robb Report monthly to the absolute wealthiest buyer in the world. I am contacting you regarding our Annual Real Estate Trends Issue (see below) where we are reserving space for a EWM national 12 template listing page. The price is only $625 per property with a free online classified listing as well. Please let me know how many spots you are interested in reserving or if you are interesting in learning about advertising your amazing properties on your own. Time and space is limited! “
At best this is a stretch, at worst it is an outright lie. But it made me think… she is using my name to prey upon my own agents. So, if you are contemplating parting with 625 hard earned dollars… think twice.
Advertising of any kind, like blogging, is a commitment. In order to be successful it requires repetition and at big $$ numbers, that could cost quite a bit of money. So ask yourself… is it really worth it? What will that ad bring you in the way of business in the foreseeable future? Are you looking for your next listing? Buyer? Grasping at straws?
It is always amazing to me to see what I call reactionary advertising – the property isn’t selling and rather than asking that difficult seller for a reduction, maybe there is someone in Dubai that is willing to overpay for the property that might read the Robb Report from his yacht in Cannes. And I am just picking on the Robb Report, but the logic applies to all of your advertising decisions.
The same rationale applies to internet providers, seminar sellers, banner ads, pay per view web sites, etc. Someone mentioned a site where you can pay $30 a month to put your listings on the site… I don’t get this at all. There are literally hundreds of FREE sites available that get more traffic and viewership – so why would you pay to put your listings anywhere? At least with a magazine, they can tout niched readership and distribution – but everyone has access to websites so what exactly are you paying for?
To sum up this rant, think twice about spending the big bucks in a tough market. If you have any questions, talk with your manager or me and remember to think for the long term… do that marketing plan and stick to it.
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